Lady’s Kisses Biscuits- Baci di Dama

Valentine’s day is approaching… not sure what to get him/her this year?

Instead of buying something, you could try to prepare our Baci di dama biscuits (literally Lady’s kisses) to make your beloved one even sweeter.

The link to Valentine’s day is of course the shape, recalling lips ready to shoot a kiss!

INGREDIENTS for ca. 40 baci

• 200 g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 200 g (1 cup + 5 tbsp) unsalted butter at room temperature
• 200 g (2 cups) hazelnuts (or hazelnut flour if you are in a hurry ;-))
• 250 g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
• For the filling:
• Nutella or dark chocolate (140 g – 1/2 cup). If you are in Scandinavia, you can buy “Odense Nougatcreme”

METHOD

• Toast the hazelnuts at 160 ºC for 10-15 minutes until they are golden-brown. Remove from the oven and as soon as they are cool, put them in a plastic bag and shake to remove the skin. You don’t need to peel the hazelnuts completely, the skin will give a fancy brown colour to the biscuits.
• Once completely cool, put the hazelnuts in a food processor with a spoon of sugar, and pulse them until very fine
• (You can skip these first steps if you use hazelnut flour)
• Transfer the hazelnuts flour in a bowl and knead it with the remaining sugar, butter (at room temperature and cut into pieces) and all-purpose flour. Use your hand to mix all ingredients together, and knead until it comes together into a dough. Chill the dough for 30 minutes.
• Remove from the fridge and roll out teaspoon-sized portions of dough into perfect balls and place them on a baking sheet (see the picture below).

• Bake at 160 ºC (320 F) for about 15 minutes, until the top is lightly golden brown. Check them very often during baking. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before touching them as they are very fragile.
• Once cool, put a chocolate chip-sized dollop (in case you use Nutella or Nougatcream) on the bottom of one cookie and take another cookie, and sandwich the two halves together. If you use melted dark chocolate, make a little parchment paper cone and pipe the chocolate onto the bottom of the cookie.
• Once filled, store in an air tight container.